Skoda

Skoda Auto is an automobile manufacturer in the Czech Republic. In 1991, it became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.

Skoda has several manufacturing and assembly plants, including one in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Skoda also has an assembly plant in the city of Aurangabad, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra which was established in 2001 as Skoda Auto India Private Ltd.

Skoda was a participant in the World Rally Championship with Skoda Fabia WRC until 2005. The 2006 season saw Skoda represented by a private team.

In 2006, Skoda presented its brand new model Roomster, which is a small MPV with a unique design, which reflects future trends. At the end of December 2006,

Skoda also released the first official pictures of the new Fabia, a model that will replace Fabia in 2007.

A new concept car was presented at the Paris Auto Show in September 2006. The concept was called Joyster, and is a three-door compact car intended especially for young people.

In 2005 the company produced 494,637 vehicles, and on 22 November 2006, produced the 500,000th vehicle of 2006, the first time in Skoda's long history that this target had been reached. By the end of 2006, over 550,000 vehicles had been produced.

Volkswagen AG's Australian arm, VGA (Volkswagen Group Australia), recently announced that they will be returning Skoda to the Australian car market in October, 2007. Skoda vehicles were last sold in Australia in 1983. Currently only the Octavia and Roomster are available in Australia, with the Fabia to join later on and the second generation Superb to join in 2009.

It is rumored that a version from the brazilian Volkswagen Gol NF will be a new base model for Skoda in Europe.